"3 Great Demos on One Disk!!!"

Every month another Official Playstation Magazine is released. Along with the magazine, a demo disk is released with it. I will be reviewing the May 1999 issue of the magazine, and the 20th demo release.

EhrgeizThe first fighting game released by Square is jam packed with tons of characters (only one, Godhand is playable in the demo) including all of your favorites from Final Fantasy VII. As a person who really does not like fighting games I was quite skeptical of this game, but since I could play with Cloud in the final version, I gave this game a chance, and I am glad I did. The graphics are beautiful, the animations, smooth. The sound could have used some help, there was not too much of anything. The controls were something to be desired. Flawless, simply flawless. Although it is only a demo, it will provide a couple of hours of playing time. Overall, a really great demo.

Gex 3: Deep Cover Gecko

Following its predecessors, Gex 3 mocks just about everything in existence. You are in a two story house trying to find the same old items. The graphics have been updated from the previous version, and are quite well done, especially for a demo. First playing the game can be a bit confusing, but it is easy to learn in no time, and the only real bug is the camera controls, which has plagued 90% of 3-D games and has almost become and expectable glitch. If you have played the other two versions of the game, you know just how fun controlling a gecko can be, this game is no exception to that rule. Gex 3 is one of the better demos that you can play.

Legend of Legia

Legend of Legia is a 3-D RPG with some innovative features, the fighting system is completely redesigned from any other RPG. The graphics are pretty impressive, and the in battle graphics are the best that I have seen any RPG lay down. The character design could use a little help, but most RPG’s do. The sound system is lacking anything real great, and quite frankly is somewhat of a downfall. Controlling your character is real easy to do, and the controls during a fight are down right innovative and fun. These features can lead to a stupid game, or an extremely fun game, Legend of Legia has turned out to be one of the more fun ones that came out. Legend of Legia is another great demo on this CD.

Contender

Why? Why? Why? Why did this game have to spoil the three near perfect games that have graced this disk? Contender came out before the boxing smash hit Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, and when boxing games were trying to make a name for themselves. Unfortunately, Contender did a horrible job fulfilling this task. The characters are unbelievable polygonal, to the point where it looks like the game could be on a 16 bit system. Making up for the bad graphics, is a bad sound system. Controlling your fighter is a pretty simple task, and Contender has a pretty good set of controls. Contender is not a great game to play and I would recommend you stay away from this demo. Overall, Contender is a really badly presented demo.